name that slow air
I know the fuzziness of tune names, but the wife has picked up on this one, we need some name to call it by.
There is this guy playing it on a low whistle, saying he got it from a CD by Ally Mackenzie and Colin Melville where they just call it "Slow Air"
It is probably Scottish- hints and inside intelligence welcome.
the world is better off without bad ideas, good ideas are better off without the world
Re: name that slow air
It sounds to me like the song 'Easy and Free' which Danu did a version of with Liam Clancy on their All Things Considered album (track 7), the notes in the CD sleeve mention it's also known as 'Jock Stewart' and that they learnt it from Scottish folk singer Archie Fisher.
Richard
Re: name that slow air
I can't access YouTube any more since I'm sick of signing up new gmail addresses, but the description by rjb sounds like the song best-known as "A Man You Don't Meet every Day"
Re: name that slow air
???Originally Posted by Bren
The first man who whistled
thought he had a wren in his mouth.
He went around all day
with his lips puckered,
afraid to swallow.
--"The First" by Wendell Berry
Re: name that slow air
Jock Stewart (or Easy and Free or A Man You Don't Meet Every Day) -- basically. Some modification of the melody and chords. From the Stewarts of Blairgowrie; Belle Stewart's father-in-law Jock was supposedly the inspiration for the song. I had the good fortune to spend a week at Pinewoods Camp with Belle, her daughter Sheila and grandson Ian back in the '90's, I believe. Scottish "travelers" (gypsies), great singers.
Here's Sheila in 1980, being "collected" by Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger; there are several shots of Belle listening:
Here's Archie Fisher (with Garnet Rogers) doing Jock Stewart at the Philly Folk Fest in the '80's:
When trying to learn the English-system concertina 25-or-so years ago, I drove my family nuts playing this melody over and over. In C.
Allen Hopkins
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Re: name that slow air
You beat me to it. Yes, one of my favorites.
Re: name that slow air
Thanks all - now that leaves me puzzled nonetheless. The A part of the tune seems to be indeed Jock Stewart (why didn't I recognize that), but whence comes the B part (that's why, I guess - Jock Stewart hasn't got a B part)?
Is this tune just a souped-up Jock Stewart, or is Jock Stewart just words planted upon the A part of an older tune? Egg? Chicken?
the world is better off without bad ideas, good ideas are better off without the world
Re: name that slow air
Sorry Brent - my home PC and laptop won't let me watch YouTube unless I sign in, and they won't let me sign in with my old log-in - I have to create a Gmail address. I can watch it OK at work. It must be due to biscuits - I believe you call them "cookies" over there.
Anyway, Jock Stewart, IAMYDMED etc was the subject of a long running and occasionally bitter argument between my dad and his brother that started in the 1930s. My uncle reckoned he was the sole carrier of the song, at least in SE Australia, my dad scoffed at this notion for nearly 50 years and was overjoyed when he heard the Pogues version on the radio, proving him right.
My uncle liked to sing sings and recite monologues but he was not a folk song collector and he probably heard the song in music hall/vaudeville which is where at least one poster on Mudcat.org suggests it originated, like many a "folk song". It wasn't unheard of for singers like the Stewarts to adapt such songs.
Bren
Re: name that slow air
Allen, thanks for the vintage rendition from the old bold "Erchie".
Re: name that slow air
It certainly has some phrases similar to Jock Stewart (Easy and Free, Man You Don't Meet..., etc) but a different melody in other parts as Bertram has noted above and I do not recognise those at all.
Re: name that slow air
I'd say it was the song the same as many versions listed above, I know it as the song by the Pogues, that Kate (?surname?) sang on the "Rum, Sodomy and the Lash" album, on here it is called "I'm a man you don't meet every day". The guy playing it on the low whistle is playing a different version. Many slow airs are played as an interpretation of a song but on an instrument. It's very difficult to find two versions of a slow air played exactly the same, and also to find two version of the written music the same.
Re: name that slow air
Cait O'Riordan sang it - she was their bass player at that time..
Cheers,
Jill
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Re: name that slow air
Re: name that slow air
That's it exactly, CMel, thanks a lot!
the world is better off without bad ideas, good ideas are better off without the world
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